Difficulty of normal content.

[HemlockEvergreen]

I think this is a very good issue to bring up, because it brings us to the logical conclusion of requiring FFXIV be played from 1 to 100 sequentially. The only people who can play Dawntrail endgame are those who have beaten the entire 400-hour MSQ and "got gud", or those who "cheated" by buying a boost. It's a great thing for us to showcase, because we're finally becoming like World of Warcraft, a game that you all claim to hate. Meanwhile, World of Warcraft is actually more friendly to newer players because you can start at the second-newest expansion and reach endgame content within only around 20 hours of playtime. A lot of you HATED the "elitist" nature of your former game, and you came to Final Fantasy XIV because it was "the friendly MMO". But now you all are more hostile to new players than the game you want to replace. Your attitude resulted in the world's former top MMO losing its spot to FFXIV. And what happens when your attitude takes over this game too?

What are you smoking, bro.

WoW lost players to FFXIV because:

1 - The game was going to shit. The story was pure garbage, and the gameplay was a grindfest made out of boring chores. You couldn't just show up and raid (the fun part), you had to grind your anima whatevers, your reputations, do mandatory PVP and M+ to open a chest that gave you a chance of getting a piece of gear that maybe would be good for your class. It was a repetitive, mind-numbing, FOMO based experience. In contrast, FFXIV lets me just log in and raid, I can stop for a month or two without completely falling behind, and there's even Ultimates, which are not tied to a gearing system at all and exist purely for fun and cosmetics. And for gearing, even if I'm the most unlucky person ever and I never win a roll, I know I'm getting BiS in 16 weeks. There's no FOMO or being dependent on RNG. It's a better raiding experience overall.

2 - People left WoW because there was a huge sexual harrassment scandal on Blizzard, including great hits like "raiding the office and groping the interns", "stealing employees breast milk from the fridge", and "driving a woman to suicide on a business trip". For a lot of people who were already frustrated with WoW's mechanics, this was the last drop.

No one left WoW for XIV because they wanted a "less elitist" MMO. They left WoW for XIV because they wanted fun raiding without a bunch of grindy bullshit, hopefully made by a company where sexual assault is not part of the corporate culture.